Rose of Tralee festival heads for Skellig coast as next Kerry Rose candidate to be selected

Fourteen potential Kerry rose candidate will take to the stage in Foilmore Community Centre on Friday as the next Rose of Tralee community event takes place in Kerry.

South Kerry has come together to host what is set be one of the biggest community Rose of Tralee event in the county with 15 girls taking part in a mini Rose of Tralee selection night as they compete for title of Skellig Rose. The winning girl will go forward to the Kerry Rose selection in May. She will be joined by the winning Escort who will also be in with an opportunity to be chosen as an Escort for the International festival. 

Emer Sugrue, Emma Fitzgerald, Leanne O'Neill, Kelsey McCarthy, Catherine O'Connell, Shauna O'Grady, Ciara Devlin, Saidhbh Ni Bhraoinain, Lisa O'Sullivan, Saidhbh O'Sullivan, Alannah O'Shea Sarah O'Shea, Aoife Murphy Emer Sugrue, and Corina Geary O’Sullivan  have all signed for the opportunity. 

There are 10 candidates for the Skellig Escort title including  Mark Sugrue, Alan Curran Daragh O’Shea, Alan Smith, Brian Smith, Ronan Quinlan, Austin Murphy, David O’Sullivan Jeremiah Moran and Jacob Haigh.

The Skellig Rose event is a huge community effort with Cahersiveen Community Alliance, Skellig Coast Tourism Network and Skellig Stars Special Olympics Club joining forces to organise the event and to raise funds for Skellig Stars as the beneficiary. Local businesses have also rowed in behind the event and supported the Rose and Escorts and the event. 

"The way that the subcommittee here has worked together, and has drummed up support locally has been so impressive and an absolute credit to the area. It is plain to see that they work extremely hard to promote the area and to keep the community spirit alive. Roses and Rose Escorts, and sponsoring businesses have come out in force to help ensure that this event will be a huge success, and will raise much needed and welcomed funds for the Skellig Stars. We are looking forward to a really fantastic night where the Skellig Coast Community Rose and Rose Escort will be selected, and we are confident from the reaction locally that this can remain an annual event for the Skellig Coast,” said Event coordinator and Festival Director of the Rose of Tralee International Festival, Suzan O’Gara. 

There are two fundraising aspects – profits from the event itself on March 24 and Monster Raffle ticket sales. There is a brand new Kia car up for grabs with these tickets and the Skellig Stars committee will continue to sell tickets for this until July.

Chairman of the club, Denis Daly, explained that the funds will help with the club's development an eight lane running track.

"Skellig Stars and Iveragh Athletics have joined forces to get this initiative up and running. We are currently in negotiations to buy a site and we would like to thank everyone for their continued support,” said Mr Daly. 

The Skellig Rose Selection will take place at 7.30pm at Foilmore Community Centre on Friday, March 24 and MC is Ollie Turner from Galway Bay FM.